John left through the front door. The streets were empty, even more than usual
John left through the front door. The streets were empty, even more than usual. There was an odd feeling the permeated everything.
The 1983 Ford, Bronco roared to life as he turned the key. John hadn’t driven the bronco since the camping trip last summer. As the fan blow dust in his face, john realized that he should have at least turned the engine over a few times. He was glad that the battery had charge and the tires seemed ok.
The bronco was the only vehicle he owned that could fulfill the job he was asked.
John almost wished he hadn’t answered the phone when Jerry called an hour before. Bu the isolation was starting to get to him, and John was yearning for any human contact.
“Sometimes,” John thought to himself. “It’s best to leave things alone. You gotta be careful what you wish for.”
John checked his mirror and back out of the driveway realizing nothing would be behind him. He hadn’t even looked at any of his neighbors in the last two weeks. Not since the mandatory quarantine order was given.
The whole thing happened so fast. One week everyone was scrambling for toilet paper, and the next all was quiet. One may think that quiet and peaceful are synonyms, and John would have agreed a few weeks ago. But now he knew that sometimes peace and quiet could be spoken together, but not now. Now quiet seemed to be more of an electric force. Potential energy that could be felt more than heard.
The bronco’s muffler reverberated through the quiet streets as John pulled away. He wondered if he could do what he was asked by his friend and religious leader, Jerry. The phone call he had only thirty minutes ago, replayed in his mind again and again.
“Hello” John had said as he answered the phone.
“John,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “John, its Jerry, how are you doing?”
“I’m good,” John replied. “I’m just trying to stay busy.”
“Yeah, this whole self-quarantine thing has gone on way too long for my sanity.”
Jerry seemed to be making small talk, but John had this same conversation with Jerry yesterday and wondered if he was stalling.
“John, I have something to ask you…”
What followed was one of the worst stories John could remember hearing. And a request that left a pit in his stomach that seemed to rip his soul in pieces. John wondered if he could do what had been asked of him.
“I know this is a lot to ask,” Jerry said. “But I don’t know where else to turn. Your house has the room and it's only you there.”
The last sentence split John's otherwise good-natured façade down the middle exposing his anger. Yes, he was alone but not by choice.
“How can you even ask me.” John barked at Jerry. “How can you even think that this would be a good idea.”
“It’s the only alternative I have.”
“Well, what about government housing? What about a hotel? what about the street…” John knew he had gone too far and felt ashamed, but he didn’t back down. He was angry on the surface but the loss and pain of the last few years were welling up underneath. He doubled down on his anger to keep the tears at bay. “Go to Hell Jerry, I will help you take food to those that can’t leave their house, I will mow lawns, and fix fences, and cook dinner. I will visit people I don’t know, I will do anything but please do not ask me to do this. It’s not fair.”
The first round of the virus that spread throughout the world came and left a year ago. When it was all over, John's wife Mandy, and their twin girls she was carrying were all taken by the illness.
“John,” Jerry said. “Just think about it will you.”
“You know I don’t have to Jerry,” John said before Jerry could hang up the phone. “But what you are asking me is about the worst thing in the world right now.”
“I know,” Jerry said. “I know”
John's mind flashed out of his memories as he pulled up to the checkpoint.
“Hey John,” Officer Robert Jensen said as he met John at his window.
“Hey, Bob,”
“You headed for some supplies? This is not your normal day is it?”
“No, I’m running an errand for my Bishop, Jerry Murdoch.”
“What kind of errand?”
“Not the kind I’m I want to do. It’s a favor for Jerry.”
“Let me just clear your papers,” Officer Jensen said as he motioned for John's ID, and recent medical clearance. “I still find asking for people's papers makes me uncomfortable. IT makes me feel like a Nazi, or a Communist or something. Just a sec.”
As officer Jensen stepped away John couldn’t help but internalize the comment that was made. In the last few weeks, much of normal life had been changed. And even though no one in the government or the media was using the terms, Martial law was now a poignant part of life in America. In the previous outbreak a year earlier, talk of forced quarantine and other measures that signal a police state were met with such vitriol that the government seemed incapable to do anything except exhort people to follow their advice, to stay in, and self-quarantine. And much of the recommendations received little to no real attention. Lots of talk, but little action.
People made efforts in the initial weeks to comply but as lives and income became affected. Most of the healthy people began resenting the orders coming from the government, and shortly after the supposed voluntary shut down of the society was to occur people gave up and returned to their lives as normal. And it was not those that were healthy that were affected. It was those over 60 and others whose health was already compromised that suffered. Including John's wife Mandy. The pregnancy had developed complications that sent her to the hospital. While at the hospital, the world was awakened to the pandemic that spread across the world. She contracted the virus while at the hospital, and never returned home.
The children she carried never stood a chance. John stood by and watched his wife drift as doctors delivered the babies in the hope to save them. But the virus had already been transmitted and 24 hours after the birth of his two sweet girls and the death of his best friend, John's world was darkened even more as the two girls left this world almost simultaneously.
“Looks good,” Officer Jensen said returning to the driver's side window of the bronco.
“Bob, what is the process to bring people back through this checkpoint?”
“Are they restricted? Err...uh...are they under a quarantine order?”
“Just released, been a month in lock down.”
“They will need all their papers showing their release, and they will need to bring a copy of their most recent tests, test should have been done within the last five days, but then once here both you and they will have a 2 week self-isolation period, so make sure you stock up before you bring them back.”
“I think I can manage for at least two weeks, but Bishop Jerry, should be able to bring me anything we run short of. “
“Do you remember when the three of us, took those girls up to the reservoir and went swimming?” Bob said. HE had the idea to swim in the buff, and the girls agreed but they stayed 50 yards away the whole time, Jerry kept swimming closer and closer and the girls would scream and swim away? And now he’s the bishop? Man, it’s crazy we are this old.”
The title Bishop was given to the member of Johns church who had been assigned to watch over the congregation, the calling usually last about five years. There was no paid ministry at Johns church, so everyone was a volunteer.
“I totally forgot about that, yeah we have come along way from the miscreants we used to be.” John replied. John enjoyed seeing his old high school friend and normally would love to sit and chat, but John had a lot on his mind. “Good to talk Bob, I’ll see you when I come back through.”
“Not unless it’s within the hour, my shift is ending.” Bob said
John did not hear the last comment; his mind was already thinking about the task at hand. He knew very little about the family Bishop Jerry had asked him to assist. He knew that the Father had passed away a month earlier, he was one of the first deaths, in the area, during this second more severe wave of the pandemic. And the mother had been admitted to the hospital two weeks earlier, her condition was critical. The children had remained in state supported quarantine at their home for the last two weeks. But now they were cleared to go, Jerry asked if John could take them into his home until the mother recovered or one of their extended family became available to assist.
John knew there were many families who were now in quarantine and others who had lost loved ones, now was not the time to be selfish. He cringed at himself while remembering the admonition from Jerry that we need to see others the way Jesus would. Which John knew was true but also knew that Jerry was laying a guilt trip on him. As John continued to drive, he couldn’t help but feel trapped and even felt a little manipulated.
John had challenged Jerry about the appropriateness of a single man caring for four children.
“I get it,” Jerry had said, “But there is no other option. But you won’t be alone all the time. I have asked some of the sisters from the congregation to help during the day. Sister Miller has been assigned to check on you and coordinate any help you need.”
It took John five minutes to reach to next check point into the Pleasant Gardens subdivision, but it seemed almost instantaneous. As he showed his medical reports and ID to the Police officer and waved through, his heart started beating. Emotions started creeping up his internal organs lodging at the bottom of his throat. The GPS gave him turn by turn directions, but john kept praying something would go wrong and he would have to turn down the wrong street and get lost.
As he pulled up to the house, he saw Sister Jennifer Miller from church gathering up the yellow caution tape and removing the quarantine signs from the outside of the house. He sat and watched her for a moment. She lost her husband Garrett about the same time John lost Mandy. While John had turned inward and almost completely had isolated himself from the rest of the world since, Jennifer had reached out to others.
Jennifer had tried to keep regular contact with John, asking if he wanted to talk, but John had resisted. He didn’t feel like two people who had experienced so much loss could help each other. He felt like all it would do is bring up everything he wanted to forget. Besides she had two kids of her own to care for, John felt that she should spend her time and energy with them.
For a brief second before he opened the door John allowed himself to smile. He was watching this woman serve this family, knowing exactly what loss she had experienced. And he wouldn’t admit it to himself, but he also found her attractive.
“Hello Sister Miller,” John said as he walked on the lawn toward her.
“You can call me Jen,” She said with a smile.
“So, what’s the plan, here?” he continued ignoring her last comment.
“Do you remember meeting Geoff and Michelle last Christmas at the party?” Sister Miller asked.
“Maybe?” John thought back on the night, several of the brother and sisters had basically dragged him out of his house to go to the party.
“Geoff is the one who teased you and said he and the other men were going to pick you up and throw you in his hummer.”
“OK, yeah I remember.”
“I introduced you to both he and Michelle later that evening. Well anyway, this is their family.”
“How is the mother doing?”
“Not very well, the doctor has been giving me updates, even though I’m not family, and he told me this morning she stabilized over night, but she could still go either way.”
John pushed another wave of emotion down, “What about the extended family, do they know what is going on?”
“Geoff doesn’t have any family. He was an only child and his parents passed away several years ago before the virus ever hit. And he doesn’t seem to have any other living relatives. Michelle has been estranged from her family ever since she joined our church and married John. And here is the other piece, they don’t have a will or anything stating who should get the kids.”
“Well I can’t imagine the state allowing me to take them without some way of showing guardianship. Will they?” John said.
“We think that eventually they may allow it, but instead of having to go through all the rigmarole now, I just told them you were Geoff’s brother. It’s a good thing that Taylor is a relatively common last name.”
“Oh, I don’t know, this could get me into a lot of trouble.”
“If not, these kids would have to remain under state care for months, and they are likely going to be split up.” Sister Miller said, john could hear her strong will in the words. “You don’t even have to do anything; the state workers are so busy they already have had to leave and left me to finish up here. I did all of the lying.”
The 1983 Ford, Bronco roared to life as he turned the key. John hadn’t driven the bronco since the camping trip last summer. As the fan blow dust in his face, john realized that he should have at least turned the engine over a few times. He was glad that the battery had charge and the tires seemed ok.
The bronco was the only vehicle he owned that could fulfill the job he was asked.
John almost wished he hadn’t answered the phone when Jerry called an hour before. Bu the isolation was starting to get to him, and John was yearning for any human contact.
“Sometimes,” John thought to himself. “It’s best to leave things alone. You gotta be careful what you wish for.”
John checked his mirror and back out of the driveway realizing nothing would be behind him. He hadn’t even looked at any of his neighbors in the last two weeks. Not since the mandatory quarantine order was given.
The whole thing happened so fast. One week everyone was scrambling for toilet paper, and the next all was quiet. One may think that quiet and peaceful are synonyms, and John would have agreed a few weeks ago. But now he knew that sometimes peace and quiet could be spoken together, but not now. Now quiet seemed to be more of an electric force. Potential energy that could be felt more than heard.
The bronco’s muffler reverberated through the quiet streets as John pulled away. He wondered if he could do what he was asked by his friend and religious leader, Jerry. The phone call he had only thirty minutes ago, replayed in his mind again and again.
“Hello” John had said as he answered the phone.
“John,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “John, its Jerry, how are you doing?”
“I’m good,” John replied. “I’m just trying to stay busy.”
“Yeah, this whole self-quarantine thing has gone on way too long for my sanity.”
Jerry seemed to be making small talk, but John had this same conversation with Jerry yesterday and wondered if he was stalling.
“John, I have something to ask you…”
What followed was one of the worst stories John could remember hearing. And a request that left a pit in his stomach that seemed to rip his soul in pieces. John wondered if he could do what had been asked of him.
“I know this is a lot to ask,” Jerry said. “But I don’t know where else to turn. Your house has the room and it's only you there.”
The last sentence split John's otherwise good-natured façade down the middle exposing his anger. Yes, he was alone but not by choice.
“How can you even ask me.” John barked at Jerry. “How can you even think that this would be a good idea.”
“It’s the only alternative I have.”
“Well, what about government housing? What about a hotel? what about the street…” John knew he had gone too far and felt ashamed, but he didn’t back down. He was angry on the surface but the loss and pain of the last few years were welling up underneath. He doubled down on his anger to keep the tears at bay. “Go to Hell Jerry, I will help you take food to those that can’t leave their house, I will mow lawns, and fix fences, and cook dinner. I will visit people I don’t know, I will do anything but please do not ask me to do this. It’s not fair.”
The first round of the virus that spread throughout the world came and left a year ago. When it was all over, John's wife Mandy, and their twin girls she was carrying were all taken by the illness.
“John,” Jerry said. “Just think about it will you.”
“You know I don’t have to Jerry,” John said before Jerry could hang up the phone. “But what you are asking me is about the worst thing in the world right now.”
“I know,” Jerry said. “I know”
John's mind flashed out of his memories as he pulled up to the checkpoint.
“Hey John,” Officer Robert Jensen said as he met John at his window.
“Hey, Bob,”
“You headed for some supplies? This is not your normal day is it?”
“No, I’m running an errand for my Bishop, Jerry Murdoch.”
“What kind of errand?”
“Not the kind I’m I want to do. It’s a favor for Jerry.”
“Let me just clear your papers,” Officer Jensen said as he motioned for John's ID, and recent medical clearance. “I still find asking for people's papers makes me uncomfortable. IT makes me feel like a Nazi, or a Communist or something. Just a sec.”
As officer Jensen stepped away John couldn’t help but internalize the comment that was made. In the last few weeks, much of normal life had been changed. And even though no one in the government or the media was using the terms, Martial law was now a poignant part of life in America. In the previous outbreak a year earlier, talk of forced quarantine and other measures that signal a police state were met with such vitriol that the government seemed incapable to do anything except exhort people to follow their advice, to stay in, and self-quarantine. And much of the recommendations received little to no real attention. Lots of talk, but little action.
People made efforts in the initial weeks to comply but as lives and income became affected. Most of the healthy people began resenting the orders coming from the government, and shortly after the supposed voluntary shut down of the society was to occur people gave up and returned to their lives as normal. And it was not those that were healthy that were affected. It was those over 60 and others whose health was already compromised that suffered. Including John's wife Mandy. The pregnancy had developed complications that sent her to the hospital. While at the hospital, the world was awakened to the pandemic that spread across the world. She contracted the virus while at the hospital, and never returned home.
The children she carried never stood a chance. John stood by and watched his wife drift as doctors delivered the babies in the hope to save them. But the virus had already been transmitted and 24 hours after the birth of his two sweet girls and the death of his best friend, John's world was darkened even more as the two girls left this world almost simultaneously.
“Looks good,” Officer Jensen said returning to the driver's side window of the bronco.
“Bob, what is the process to bring people back through this checkpoint?”
“Are they restricted? Err...uh...are they under a quarantine order?”
“Just released, been a month in lock down.”
“They will need all their papers showing their release, and they will need to bring a copy of their most recent tests, test should have been done within the last five days, but then once here both you and they will have a 2 week self-isolation period, so make sure you stock up before you bring them back.”
“I think I can manage for at least two weeks, but Bishop Jerry, should be able to bring me anything we run short of. “
“Do you remember when the three of us, took those girls up to the reservoir and went swimming?” Bob said. HE had the idea to swim in the buff, and the girls agreed but they stayed 50 yards away the whole time, Jerry kept swimming closer and closer and the girls would scream and swim away? And now he’s the bishop? Man, it’s crazy we are this old.”
The title Bishop was given to the member of Johns church who had been assigned to watch over the congregation, the calling usually last about five years. There was no paid ministry at Johns church, so everyone was a volunteer.
“I totally forgot about that, yeah we have come along way from the miscreants we used to be.” John replied. John enjoyed seeing his old high school friend and normally would love to sit and chat, but John had a lot on his mind. “Good to talk Bob, I’ll see you when I come back through.”
“Not unless it’s within the hour, my shift is ending.” Bob said
John did not hear the last comment; his mind was already thinking about the task at hand. He knew very little about the family Bishop Jerry had asked him to assist. He knew that the Father had passed away a month earlier, he was one of the first deaths, in the area, during this second more severe wave of the pandemic. And the mother had been admitted to the hospital two weeks earlier, her condition was critical. The children had remained in state supported quarantine at their home for the last two weeks. But now they were cleared to go, Jerry asked if John could take them into his home until the mother recovered or one of their extended family became available to assist.
John knew there were many families who were now in quarantine and others who had lost loved ones, now was not the time to be selfish. He cringed at himself while remembering the admonition from Jerry that we need to see others the way Jesus would. Which John knew was true but also knew that Jerry was laying a guilt trip on him. As John continued to drive, he couldn’t help but feel trapped and even felt a little manipulated.
John had challenged Jerry about the appropriateness of a single man caring for four children.
“I get it,” Jerry had said, “But there is no other option. But you won’t be alone all the time. I have asked some of the sisters from the congregation to help during the day. Sister Miller has been assigned to check on you and coordinate any help you need.”
It took John five minutes to reach to next check point into the Pleasant Gardens subdivision, but it seemed almost instantaneous. As he showed his medical reports and ID to the Police officer and waved through, his heart started beating. Emotions started creeping up his internal organs lodging at the bottom of his throat. The GPS gave him turn by turn directions, but john kept praying something would go wrong and he would have to turn down the wrong street and get lost.
As he pulled up to the house, he saw Sister Jennifer Miller from church gathering up the yellow caution tape and removing the quarantine signs from the outside of the house. He sat and watched her for a moment. She lost her husband Garrett about the same time John lost Mandy. While John had turned inward and almost completely had isolated himself from the rest of the world since, Jennifer had reached out to others.
Jennifer had tried to keep regular contact with John, asking if he wanted to talk, but John had resisted. He didn’t feel like two people who had experienced so much loss could help each other. He felt like all it would do is bring up everything he wanted to forget. Besides she had two kids of her own to care for, John felt that she should spend her time and energy with them.
For a brief second before he opened the door John allowed himself to smile. He was watching this woman serve this family, knowing exactly what loss she had experienced. And he wouldn’t admit it to himself, but he also found her attractive.
“Hello Sister Miller,” John said as he walked on the lawn toward her.
“You can call me Jen,” She said with a smile.
“So, what’s the plan, here?” he continued ignoring her last comment.
“Do you remember meeting Geoff and Michelle last Christmas at the party?” Sister Miller asked.
“Maybe?” John thought back on the night, several of the brother and sisters had basically dragged him out of his house to go to the party.
“Geoff is the one who teased you and said he and the other men were going to pick you up and throw you in his hummer.”
“OK, yeah I remember.”
“I introduced you to both he and Michelle later that evening. Well anyway, this is their family.”
“How is the mother doing?”
“Not very well, the doctor has been giving me updates, even though I’m not family, and he told me this morning she stabilized over night, but she could still go either way.”
John pushed another wave of emotion down, “What about the extended family, do they know what is going on?”
“Geoff doesn’t have any family. He was an only child and his parents passed away several years ago before the virus ever hit. And he doesn’t seem to have any other living relatives. Michelle has been estranged from her family ever since she joined our church and married John. And here is the other piece, they don’t have a will or anything stating who should get the kids.”
“Well I can’t imagine the state allowing me to take them without some way of showing guardianship. Will they?” John said.
“We think that eventually they may allow it, but instead of having to go through all the rigmarole now, I just told them you were Geoff’s brother. It’s a good thing that Taylor is a relatively common last name.”
“Oh, I don’t know, this could get me into a lot of trouble.”
“If not, these kids would have to remain under state care for months, and they are likely going to be split up.” Sister Miller said, john could hear her strong will in the words. “You don’t even have to do anything; the state workers are so busy they already have had to leave and left me to finish up here. I did all of the lying.”
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